Workforce Crisis, Post

Workforce Crisis

One in five workers “lack adequate literacy skills” so said Greg Jericho from the Centre for Future Work, 13 April 2023 on ABC News radio.  A link here to a more recent discussion of this: Grattan Institute Education Nonsense, (February 2024).

If you can’t write properly or read well enough, take heart.  Help your child and help yourself at the same time with the lesson packs on www.tutoringprimary.au. The Workforce Crisis is in the lack of reading and writing skills.

Links: Upper Primary School, Page,   Middle Primary School, Page,   Early Primary School, Page, 
Early Secondary School, Page.  And a sample lesson pack: “Horse to Horse Power” Literacy Grade 3-4

As a former TAFE teacher with teaching experience across other sectors, I can put my pennyworth in. TAFE stands for Technical and Further Education.

It is often the writing skills of workers that seem worse than reading skills. Writing is a different skill from reading.  It could stop you from getting the job you want. Maybe you believe you can’t even apply for it!  Solve your own literacy problems by working with your child. These lesson packages have advantages:

Predictable format – most look the same.
>You can download and print out a hard copy – most are between 1 and 3 A4 pages.
>>No online lessons with others involved. You can work through a lesson quietly and no-one will know what you’re doing. You won’t feel exposed to judgement. 
>>>Build your confidence as your child builds theirs. You will learn from your child and they will learn from you.>When you’re ready, go to adult education classes to advance your success.

On 12 April 2023, The Age newspaper published an article about skills shortages in the Australian labour market. Skills Minister, Brendan O’Connor, announced new programs for TAFE. More money will be invested.

Jenny Macaffer (Adult Learning Australia) said “Without the learning and literacy skills … people can find themselves struggling to manage everyday tasks whether on the job or in their everyday lives”.

Your child learns but you also make up for lost time when you were at school or had undiagnosed issues.

I tutor an early secondary student. Five months ago the student could not read 2-letter words. The student looked at the first letter and guessed. So ‘in’ was ‘is’. Now, the student is reading the Grade 1 items from this website .  A diagnosis had stopped busy classroom teachers from making progress with him for seven years.

I have many success stories of accelerated learning through the use of these lesson packs — but now is not the time, so get on and seize the day!

Fair use/dealing claimed for illustrations.